Riding in the rain really isn't so bad. The worst part is talking yourself into going outside. I think about Brooklyn summers as a kid and splashing around broken fire hydrants to ready myself.

It was sprinkling just enough to make the road wet out of Port Dover. This condition concerned me because light rain when it hasn't rained for a while can be as bad as snow or ice for a cyclist. A sheen of oil and road is activated to make things very slick until it gets washed away.

As I was fiddling with final preparations and ointments at a Tim Horton's, a car pulled up and Sandra and Ray jumped out to wish me well. What a nice surprise that was because I didn't know their names until this moment. They were the generous people that bought me dinner last night! They spotted me and pulled over.

Ashok forced to enjoy a cup of Tim Horton's mediocre fare.

Sandra, Ray, Graig, the Innkeeper lady, Alex Trebec. All nice Canadians that reawakened my desire to have a place in this country. I tried to move to BC with Katy some years ago, but the expatriate and convoluted tax issues for my business was vexing. I'll just have to settle for frequent visits.

I made my way toward Ft. Erie in crummy, but not so freezing wet conditions. I met up with Ashok whom I befriended working in Augusta, GA this year. Ashok is Canadian, but flies all over the place doing high minded work in industrial automation. He's often tasked with taking manufacturers out of the 1950's by demonstrating his products work better than the UNIVAC knockoffs they use.

Ashok gave me lift over the bridge into Buffalo. We talked strategy assuming that we'd be hassled by Customs bullies. A pasty white guy in spandex with a Canadian citizen originally from Oman surely looks suspicious to our paranoid government.

We had little trouble and Ashok remarked, "That agent was an old veteran with nothing to prove. Good thing we didn't get some new recruit with a chip on his shoulder."

The evening ended in a nice, pedestrian fashion. I bought some cheap sunglasses to replace the Tifosi I last earlier in the day and we had wings for dinner. It's Buffalo, the intergalactic headquarters for wings.

Rain expected tomorrow. Damn.

Comments

debra wade

08/10/2013 8:45pm

Jon,
I miss your blog, where are you? Is Katy with you yet?
I feel like a junkie who hasn't has her fix for a good while and is
not enjoying withdrawal at all.

Reply

Jonathan Leahey

08/11/2013 12:39am

Debbie:

The final pages are coming. Finished in Maine three days ago. Packed up bike and headed for NYC until Monday for the flight back.